Dead Man's Lie

Criminal Literature | Thriller | Kindle

THE MOTIVES FOR MURDER NEVER CHANGE.

Deep in the Scottish Borders a cartel of landowners are conspiring to restock Tweed's dwindling resources with genetically-engineered salmon they hope will re-establish the river's global reputation and put it firmly back on the angling map.

Only the small Craikmuir estate stands in their way — and a self-styled eco-warrior called Fin, fighting the feudal inequities of fishing rights. Lurking beneath the surface in scuba gear, harassing Tweed's most exclusive fishing beats. And now according to the press, setting off bombs and killing people. Scaring off the big investors.

Duncan Ker thought the days of Borders bloodfeud were long gone. But when his brother — the Laird of Craikmuir — is fished comatose from the Tweed, he's forced to give up his aimless ex-pat existence and return home to confront the corporate wolves at the castle gates. Which is when the bodies start to fall.

Brother Lox Lennox is used to falling bodies. But then he's no ordinary monk. Ex-SAS and with a bullet still lodged in his skull, his convoluted past is a minefield of contradictions best avoided in the sanctuary of the cloisters. Now he's out on the river with shotgun and grenades, hunting down Fin and looking for redemption. When he finds it in the strangest place it's at a price he can't afford.

Nobody's Fool

Crime | Thriller | 1992

Introducing Frank McMorran

To all appearances Dominic Bain was a model citizen. He worked hard, kept himself to himself, and cared for his ageing mother. All perfectly normal. Until the day a demon from his past returned and triggered memories better left buried. For suddenly revealed beneath the passive veneer lay nobody's fool—a killer as ruthless as he was mad.

Detective Inspector McMorran was also nobody's fool. Suspended from duty pending a Fatal Accident Inquiry he finds himself temporarily reinstated and instructed to capture The Hangman, a particularly vicious psychopath. Obstructed by a Chief Inspector who would rather see him fail than succeed, McMorran must race against time to salvage his sinking career.

As murder follows murder, McMorran's investigation takes him headlong from the backstreets of Edinburgh to the forested hills of Perthshire towards a confrontation that will reveal once and for all just who is nobody's fool.

Author's NoteNobody's Fool was first published by Headline. It was also published by Shinchosa (Japan) and Walker Books (USA); sold to book clubs; and shortlisted for the Fullbright Chandler Award.

Once A Cop

Crime | Thriller | 1994

WHO SAYS REVENGE CAN'T BE FUN?

Billy McCulloch enjoyed his life as a postman until the day he ran a sword through a letterbox and ended up the wrong side of Saughton Prison's walls. Now older and wiser and back on the streets again, he no longer kills for the pleasure alone, he does it for a living.

So when obsessed hotelier Jack Rankine offers him an exclusive villa on the Costa Brava in exchange for an ex-cop's life, Billy doesn't need to think twice. Especially when the ex-cop in question is Joe Costello, the man who first put him behind bars.

Author's NoteOnce A Cop was first published by Headline under the title The Midnight Chill. I don't know why I let them persuade me to change it — I guess I was young and naive and probably a little pretentious as well. Anyway, the original title I submitted was Once A Pig, which is why they wanted me to change it in the first place!

Slow Burn

Crime | Thriller | 1996

McMORRAN'S RETURN

What is the connection between the ritual slaughter of sheep on the Isle of Arran and a series of gruesome murders on the mainland? Apparently nothing, until recently demoted DC McMorran stumbles over the body of a pensioner and once again finds himself embroiled in an investigation that threatens what little is left of his crumbling career.

As the Fangman's victims continue to fall in this thrilling sequel to Nobody's Fool, two key questions remain uppermost in McMorran's mind—who is sending him cryptic readings from the ancient Chinese Book of Changes, and why? The answers, he knows, might just save his life.

The Phantom Coast

Spy/Espionage | Thriller | Coming Soon

DEATH IS NO EXCUSE

In the shadowy world of two-timing double-dealing double-agents, who's watching the watcher betray the betrayed?

When the Berlin Wall came down the lines between the agencies became even more blurred. For some the Cold War didn't just melt, it began to boil. When a combined operation between Germany, Russia and the UK brought Dieter, Lockhart and Katja together they didn't just get on, they took the term 'inter-agency cooperation' to a whole new level.

In the shadows where they moved, they became known as the Troika — Dieter the judge, Katja the jury, and Lockhart the executioner. But the brightest stars burn the shortest and it all came to a brutal conclusion one cruel winter's night in Berlin.

Now five years later Dieter's turned up dead in South Africa and Section Five wants to know how he managed to die of frostbite in the middle of the desert.

Lockhart has his own reasons for taking the mission. He hasn't killed anyone in a month.

The Rapidweaver's Journey

Make no mistake: this is not a manual. It's far more useful.

We all come to RapidWeaver from different places but one thing we have in common is we're not so much web designers as we are creative entrepreneurs with a need to control our online presence. Which means we have to learn as we go along — and because the craft of Web Design comprises a range of disciplines that are professions in their own right, there's a helluva lot to learn.

Developed and refined over the last 10 years Marten Claridge's Theory of Weaverlution is a practical process that combines dramatic structures, storytelling techniques and marketing strategies in a comprehensive yet simple system that will help you plan, plot, focus and create powerful and productive projects from scratch.

The Meek And The Dead

Criminal Literature | Thriller | Coming Soon

DEAD MAN'S LIE SEQUEL

Willie Meek's not the same skinny speedfreak jailed 23 years ago for his murderous part in a tartan terrorist campaign that left three sheep and a pensioner dead and a central bank a million short on bullion. He's now a hardened killer and addicted to steroids but only two things have kept him sane all these years: his need for revenge and the thought of the gold that he alone can recover.

They say revenge is a meal best eaten cold, so he's prepared a menu of the people who betrayed him. The judge who sent him down is a starter. So's the Advocate Depute bitch who humiliated him in the box. Main course is Maddog Maddox, the agent provocateur who infilitrated the Scottish Revolutionary Army and taught them how to make bombs and rob banks and then set them up for the big fall.

Maddox who went into hiding after the trial but is now masquerading as a monk in the Scottish Borders and calling himself Brother Lox Lennox. Roll over Rasputin.

Then there's the gold he bricked up in the cellar of his grandmother's cottage in the tiny Borders village of Cramalt. No one knows it's there. Which is why no one thought to tell him that the village was flooded years ago and now lies under 40 million cubic tonnes of reservoir. Oh dear. And Willie Meek can't even swim.

Kirsten Scott can. When Primo Percowitz ate her abusive husband, the late and unlamented Lord Malkin, she mourned for a day and went into business the next. Now she owns half a dive charter boat and supervises wreck-dives and underwater film productions out of St Abbs. She thought she'd heard the last of her ill-fated anarchist youth but the past just never lets go. And if that weren't enough she's just found out she's pregnant and her lover's nowhere to be found.

REVIEWS

Nobody's Fool

Once A Cop

"His hired killer must surely rank as one of the most evil spine-chilling villains ever to emerge from an author's pen..."

Dumfries and Galloway Standard

Slow Burn

"Pacy and full of action..."

The Liverpool Daily Post

Once A Cop

"The relentless milieu of hard men's Edinburgh is leavened by the presence of various sympathetic women—a rarity in this strain of the genre."

The Times Saturday Review

Slow Burn

"Provocatively fresh... the dialogue is solid, the plot effective, and the search for a psychotic killer exciting."

The New York Sun

Nobody's Fool

"Nobody's Fool has already, and justifiably, won a spot on the shortlist for the Fulbright Chandler Award. Marten Claridge is clever enough to crosscut Bain's psychotic obsessions and progressive slayings with McMorran's narrative of detection and deduction and thus creates a grisly kind of duet that vibrates with tension and holds you fast to the page throughout. The characters are drawn with clarity and even-handed compassion, with crisp dialogue and a fine sense of pace and atmosphere."

Once A Cop

Once A Cop

Transport the Chandler genre from sunny LA to the grey backstreets of Edinburgh and you have a gritty gangland story with the knockdown power of a sawn-off shotgun..."

Peterborough Evening Telegraph

Slow Burn

"Suspense and conflict rise to an almost unbearable pitch..."

South Hams Newspapers

Once A Cop

"Chilling, but fiercely exciting."

Liverpool Daily Post

ScotsbarzcszGerry Cassidy

Dead Man's Lie

Expect the unexpected

"Peopled with a cast of unsavoury characters vividly drawn and woven tightly into a plot that has as many twists and turns as the great river around which it is set, this fast-moving tale of intrigue, greed and violent thuggery unwinds at a rapid pace, the tension mounting as the body count rises. If you like your deaths gruesome, this one's for you but despite the gore and horror, there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments in this meticulously crafted novel."

Get In TouchPlease fill in the form below to contact me, or send an email to: marten@martenclaridge.com

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